The present disclosure relates generally to wettability of articles, and more particularly, to the wettability of surfaces characterized by materials and/or surface treatments which may not immediately lend themselves to a desired wettability behavior.
Surface wettability is a critical factor in micro-fluidic devices. For example, wetting characteristics of certain surface portions on an orifice plate of an inkjet printhead can impact printhead performance. Specifically, surface portions immediately surrounding orifices of a printhead orifice plate should be non-wetting so that residual fluid in those regions will bead up away from the orifices, and will not interfere with subsequent ejection through the orifices. Other surface portions should be wetting so that residual fluid will flow off of the orifice plate. It is not always possible, however, to select a material with a desired wettability characteristic for the printhead orifice plate.